Shifting from Hierarchy to Abundance
Over the years, I’ve found myself in plenty of creative spaces that, though well-intentioned, were quietly shaped by hierarchy. The kind where “good” and “bad” hover in the air, where improvement is measured against someone else’s version of success.
It’s an easy mindset to absorb—especially in a culture where competition and external validation are built into nearly every corner of creative life.
But external validation is a silly creature. I picture it like a person peering down a narrow tunnel, gauging their impressions of the world based only on what happens to pass by at the exact moment of their looking. When external validation rules our perspective, it’s just so easy to miss so much.
Needing that kind of validation is a habit; a learned way of relating to your creativity; a roped boundary placed on an otherwise open field.
Well, enough already!
Habits can be broken, ways can be unlearned, and those ropes, no matter how official they look, are only velvet and fall over with incredible ease.
External validation is nothing. Internal self-permission is everything.
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When I hold group spaces for writers and artists, I try to build them around a few guiding tenets:
Utilize a strengths-based perspective. There is no hierarchy of capacity or skill. Everyone who shows up has something incredible inside of them that deserves to exist on the page.
Value curiosity over mastery. Questions take us farther than conclusions. There’s a generosity that lives on the other side of, but why?
Celebrate every sentence. The single line, the low word count, the act of showing up—all of it counts. All of it matters.
These aren’t just principles; they’re ways of unlearning hierarchy in real time. They remind us that creative work doesn’t thrive under ranking systems—it thrives in abundance, in permission, and in the joy of being curious together.
What I want you to know today:
You don’t need anyone’s permission to create.
The moment you start trusting your own way of seeing and making, you’re already outside the ropes.
